chapter three
to kill a mocking girl
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"Who's idea was this?" Hanna asked as we walked through the woods. "Emily's mom." Josie replied as she tried not to fall over, because Richie was right. Josie was clumsy. "The shed was me. My mom just said we should do something for us." Emily added while looking back at her friends. "Well, couldn't we do something without mosquitoes?" Hanna asked while swatting them away. "They're not mosquitoes, they're gnats." Aria replied while looking at her. "Whatever. They're small, they're annoying and they're flying up my nose" Hanna fired back.

"Well, they're attracted to your perfume." Spencer replied. "And your hair product, and your lip-gloss." Josie added teasingly. "So, what are you saying? I attract flies?" Hanna stopped and looked back at Spencer and Josie. "Gnats." Aria corrected again. "Why do I feel like this is the wrong way?" Emily exclaimed. "No. This is it. I remember that tree. It's the halfway point. There's 136 steps left to the shed." Spencer told us. Everyone looked at her weirdly. "Have you been out here since Alison?" Emily asked while looking at her. "Me? No! No way." Spencer defended herself. "But you remember that tree?" Aria asked, confused.

"You guys, it's not that weird. I mean, we came out here in 8th grade like every day. Even after." Hanna said defending Spencer. "I think this is totally the wrong place to do this, whatever you call it a shrine." Spencer replied. "It's not a shrine. It's just a place to remember Alison. What's wrong with that?" Emily responded, coming to defend her idea. "Doing it way out here makes it look like we have something to hide, which we don't." Josie replied.

"You're worried about what other people think?" Emily asked Josie who just sighed before responding. "Well, aren't you? Do you really wanna give that creepy detective more reasons to question us?" Josie asked, looking at her friends. Hanna started walking away and her friends followed her. "Hanna, why are you so quiet?" Emily asked, trying to catch up to Hanna who was walking fast. "I'm trying to keep the bugs in my nose and out of my mouth." she replied frustrated. "You're allowed to have an opinion on this." Emily told her while Hanna stopped and turned around and spoke. "You want my opinion? I say we hold off and not remember her till we know for sure she's not still here." Everyone just looked at her like she was bat shit crazy.

"What are you talking about?" Aria asked.

"You think she's still alive?" Emily asked.

"Hanna, they found her body." Josie exclaimed.

"Stop. I'm officially scared. Can we just not-" Aria tried but was cut off by Hanna. "You know what? You asked for my opinion. I don't believe she's really gone." Hanna said and walked away. "We went to her funeral." Spencer said, walking after her. "Yeah, and when we left we all got a text from her." Hanna said as she threw up arms around everywhere. "It wasn't her. Someone is messing with us." Emily added, trying to defuse the situation that was escalating.

"How do you know? And what about all those nasty messages? I mean, how does this 'A' person know all this stuff only Ali knew?" Hanna asks as she looks at each of her friends trying to get her point across. "Okay this conversation is giving me a hive." Aria said and walked away. "That's a Mosquito bite." Hanna replied as she stopped and turned to her friends. "Spencer, have you gotten any more messages?" Emily asked while quickly looking at her before down again, so she didn't fall.

"Haven't you?" Spencer asked and Aria was about to respond then they heard a twig snap. "What was that? Did you hear that?" Josie asked, huddling closer to Emily since she was closer. "Yes, I heard that. I'm standing right next to you." Emily said. "Hello? Is anybody out there?" Hanna asked, scared. "It's probably a rabbit." Spencer replied, trying to calm the panicking blonde down. "Hello?" Hanna called out again. "It's a rabbit, Hanna. It's not gonna answer you." Spencer said. "Can we just get to the shed?" Emily asked before they heard it again. "Okay that's definitely not a rabbit. Someone's out there." Hanna said."Let's turn around." Emily said just as their phones started to ring.

BLOCKED ID
Heads up, BFF's.
It's open season on liars
and I'm hunting.
⎯ A

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Josie and Richie were having breakfast at her house before school since he had stayed over last night, but she knew he would have come over anyway. "How was the thing with the girls? That shrine for Alison." He asked her as they finished up their food. She had told him about Emily's mum's idea and what they were gonna do for it. She trusted him with anything but she knew she couldn't tell him about A. No matter what, she couldn't live with herself if he got hurt. "It was good, almost fell a million times but I didn't so it was good." she replied, making him laugh. She hit him with the tea towel she was using to clean the plates. Once They had finished cleaning up their mess from cooking they got their bags and headed to school

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After splitting up from Richie Josie had run into Aria so now they were walking through the halls together. They had stopped when they saw Spencer open her locker and her books fall out making the girls rush to help her. "Russian history?" Josie asked Spencer as She picked up the book. "Yeah." Spencer sighed. "How many AP classes does it take until your brain explodes?" Josie teasingly asked Spencer. "I'm already drowning in there." she answers back. "Why, what's drowning for you, B+?" Aria jokes. "First paper due Monday, and I've written two words. My name." Spencer said softly as she shut her locker.

"Well, what's going on? Hey, you're not still freaked out about what happened in the woods yesterday, are you? Look, we do not have to do this thing for Ali until we figure," Aria started to ramble, so Spencer cut her off "No, it's not just that. It's..." she paused for a moment. "It's everything. Is there any chance your family wants to adopt me?" she asked as she looked at Aria but Aria didn't get a chance to reply as they saw Jenna rounding the corner with Toby Cavanaugh. Emily approached them and now they were together in the hallway. "He's back too? When did that happen?" Josie asked lowly so only her friends could hear her. "Maybe she needs help sending radioactive emails." Hanna said. "Yeah, or maybe sending a few of his own." Spencer added. "Hanna." we heard Wilden say from behind us. "Cops on campus too?" Aria asked.

"I just spoke to your principal and asked him if we could have a chat." He said while looking at Hanna. "No. I have to get to class." she said, hoping he'd go away. "Don't worry. You've been excused." He said."Let's go," he said as he escorted her away, Josie watched as Hanna walked away. "What is going on? Why just her?" Aria asked her friends. "Probably thinks she's the easiest to crack." Emily replied to her. "She is." Spencer and Josie muttered at the same time. "Whisper. Whisper. Whisper. Almost feels like Alison is still here." Jenna said, walking by them. 

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A while later everyone was trying to contact Hanna. "What are you doing? Is that a new phone?" Spencer asked Aria. "Yeah, I'm checking my Kin. I'll just write on Hanna's wall from here." Aria mumbled as she typed on her phone. "If she's not answering texts, what makes you think she's checking Facebook?" she asks Aria "It's worth a try." she shrugged, then Hanna finally showed up. "What's going on?" She shrugged and walked up to them like nothing was wrong.

"We've been trying to get a hold of you. What happened in there?"  Josie asked as she wrapped her jacket around herself. "Nothing. Just the same old stupid questions." She replied, like it was not a big deal. "You were in there for an hour, Hanna. What else did he ask?" Spencer asked, frustrated. "Nothing. He just took a couple calls and I just sat there waiting for him to shut up." Hanna replied. "Well, is he gonna question all of us alone now?" Aria asked, watching as Hanna closed her locker as she put a textbook in it. "Who knows? Look, let's just do this at lunch, okay? "Who knows? Look, let's just do this at lunch, okay? I have to hit the ladies before my next class." Hanna said before she walked away from them. "Is she being weird?" Emily asked. They all nodded. "She is weird. I'll see you guys at lunch." Josie said and walked off to class.

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Richie and Josie were sitting outside during their free period, talking about Noel Kahn's Party. "So are you going to go?" He asked. "Yeah, I am, are you? I'm only going if you're going Richie," Josie replied as she looked towards her best friend who had been trying to read a new book he brought last week. "Fine, because you're my best friend." he said in a teasing tone before throwing an empty food wrapper at her, making her shriek before throwing it back.

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Josie met up with the girls while Richie got them drinks. "He tackled Ben?" The girls were outside talking about and Emily filled them in what happened between Emily and Ben today. "What was Toby even doing in the girls' locker room?" Josie asked as she looked around her friends. "Why are you shocked? Toby's a perv. We caught him peeping through the windows, watching us undress." Spencer hissed "Alison's the one who saw him do that. We never did." Emily tried defending the guy that helped her. "What's up?" Hanna asks them as she walks up to them".

"Toby Cavanaugh got into a fight with Ben over Emily." Aria briefly explained to Hanna. "It wasn't over me. God. Look, he just," she paused. "saved me." Emily finished. "For what, himself?" Spencer asked. "Ew." Josie muttered. "If we hadn't asked you about Ben, would you have told us about this?" Aria asked Emily. "Toby is not a good guy, Emily. He could be seriously dangerous." Spencer said. "If he's such a bad guy, why'd he take the fall for us?" Emily fired back, making Spencer go silent. "Is this another secret? Do you know something that we don't?" Aria asked Spencer. "Guys, why don't we just, like chill, and talk about this somewhere else? When we're alone." Hanna huffed.

"I don't even know what 'just us' means anymore." Aria replies. "Yeah, uh Let's talk about it tomorrow, okay? Are we still meeting up at the shed?" she says, making Aria nod. "Yeah. Yeah, sure. Why not? "Aria said as She walked off. "Where are you going?" Emily asked the two girls confused. "The gallery. I promised my mom." She replies as she says bye to the girls as Josie stops Richie so she walks off to.

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Richie and Josie were walking outside, they had only had one drink each before deciding to try sober up even though they didn't drink much when they stopped, they could hear Mona screaming for Hanna so Josie and Richie turned the corner to see Hanna speed walking towards a car assumed it was Sean's, Hanna boyfriends.

Josie had ran to catch up to Mona. "What the hell is she doing?" She asked the Vanderwaal girl but Mona just shook her head, indicating she had no idea making Josie more worried but before she could dwell on it, Richie suggested they head home which she agreed to, mentally she told herself she'd call Hanna later to make sure she's okay.

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Josie and Richie had showered and changed and were currently sitting in her living room watching a movie but Josie could tell Richie was nervous about something so she reached over and grabbed the remote, pausing the movie and looked at him as she turned to her, confused as to why she paused the movie. "What's wrong?" she asked as he sighed and hesitantly turned to her. "Nothing I...I just-I have a question and say no if you want I don't mind I just thought that it'd be nice if you went with someone you knew." he paused but Josie nodded her head for him to continue which he did after letting out a breath.

"Will you go to homecoming with me?" he asked so quickly that she almost missed it but she didn't. She smiled at him and nodded, making him sigh in relief. "Thought you'd say no." he said as he turned the movie back on. She just laughed and cuddled into his side.

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The next morning the girls met up where they had promised to meet. "Alison wanted us across the street so she could have it out with Toby. Ali had something on him." Spencer said to them as they stood in the woods. "Besides being a total perv who peeped in our windows?" Hanna asked, slightly frustrated. "Yeah, something way bigger and she was threatening to tell everybody. That's why he took the fall for us." Spencer said. "Why are you waiting until now to tell us?" Aria asked. "I don't know. Ali made me promise and I guess I was scared. I thought if we never talked about that night again it would just go away." Spencer mumbled.

"Well, it's not going away. Not unless we toss our phones and join the Navy." Josie replied. "Look, there's five of us and one freak sending messages. If we just talk to each other like this, I feel like it makes it easier to deal with everything." Emily said while they walked through the woods. "I think Emily's right. And there's too many secrets. We shouldn't do this in the middle of nowhere. We should do it where we can see it every day." Aria said. "You mean like somewhere in school?" Hanna asked.

"No. In town. We should ask if we can put a bench somewhere." Aria added onto her previous. "And you know what? Whoever did this to her, if they're still in Rosewood we should make them look at it every day too." Josie said, making Hanna sigh while everyone else nodded. "What, you hate the idea?" Spencer asked her when she saw her expression. "No, no. I just had a rough night." Hanna said. They were about to start talking when they heard rustling, they looked at each other and decided to run towards the noise and once they stopped running and looked down to see a bracelet in the dirt. "Is that yours?" Spencer asked. "Alison's." Josie said in shock as they stared at Allison's bracelet that was laying on the ground of the woods. 

⎯ AUTHORS NOTE

Hanna and Josie's friendship is my favourite friendship can i say it, i love richie and josie.